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Nigeria Tax Highlights – January 2020

Welcome to BRC‘s monthly series on Tax Highlights in Nigeria. It’s the first recap for the year. After the festive holiday, the Taxman was very busy in January 2020. From FIRS public notices to the signing Finance Bill into law to the online filing of payroll tax returns, last month was pretty busy. In case you missed the major tax headlines, here are the top five (5) events that shaped the Nigerian tax space in January 2020.

Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) offered a 30-day window to facilitate the issuance of 2020 tax clearance certificates to eligible taxpayers. The offer opened on 2 January 2020 and closed on 30 January 2020. A copy of the public notice is available here.

Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) issued a public notice on the filing of annual tax returns (Form H1) in 2020. More details here.

President Buhari signed the 2019 Finance Bill into law. Key changes in the tax provisions were higher VAT rate from 5% to 7.5%, graduated scale for companies income tax rate and mandatory requirement for a personal tax identification number to operate a bank account. To read more on the new Act, click here.

FIRS issued a public notice on the filing of tax returns based on segment. The pubic notice groups the relevant FIRS tax office into four. More details here.

In DeltaAfrik Engineering Limited and Akwa Ibom State Board of Internal Revenue, the Tax Appeal Tribunal confirmed that statute of limitation is 6 years except where a taxpayer commits fraud, wilful default or neglect. However, the Tax Authority must prove and not assume the presence of fraud, wilful default or neglect. More details here.

In conclusion, the signing of the 2019 Finance Bill into law and LIRS public notice on filing annual returns attracted the highest feedback. A snapshot of the Nigerian tax highlights for the month is available here.